Math Question Explanation?

this is a trick question and you must add 2 to the total number of people because max says "either...or" which would not be including him and liz. so you would divide that by 3 giving 27/3 = 9. multiplying this by 2 gives 2*9= 18. so the size of the classes including liz and max is 18 in english and 9 in french, making the french class twice as small as the english class. but, the total number of people in english, but not in french is 18-2 for liz and max, which gives us 16 people taking english, but not french and 7 people taking french, but not english. the key is to understand that the 25 people is not including liz and max. this is really more of an english question.